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Parents urge Federal Government not to privatise Australian Hearing

MARK COLVIN: The parents of deaf children are urging the Federal Government not to sell off the nation's biggest hearing service provider.

The Government set up Australian Hearing as a statutory authority in the 1940s to help children and war veterans.

But the Finance Minister is considering privatising it.

Samantha Donovan reports.

SAMANTHA DONOVAN: Kate Kennedy has two hearing impaired children. She says she's among the 98 per cent of parents of deaf children who have no hearing problems themselves, so professional advice at the time her first child was diagnosed was crucial.

KATE KENNEDY: I think in some ways, Australian Hearing has very much been part of our family, since diagnosis of our first child at the age of two and a half, and then subsequently our daughter Lily, who's now 18.

So they both got hearing aids when they were preschoolers and since then, Australian hearing has been- provided really a continuity of care and support and services around our family's hearing needs.

There's so much to learn in those early days.

SAMANTHA DONOVAN: Kate Kennedy now coordinates the group Parents of Deaf Children. She says her family has built up a close relationship with a small group of Australian Hearing audiologists over the years.

And one was of particular help when her son was struggling to cope with his hearing impairment as a teenager.

KATE KENNEDY: He really just didn't want any part of having hearing loss, as a lot of these kids start to deal with around the teenage years.

Really, we were battling to keep devices on, and his audiologist was the one that really troubleshooted that with him and worked it through and really got us through that stage, I suppose.

SAMANTHA DONOVAN: Australian Hearing was set up by the Federal Government in 1947 to help children who had lost their hearing in a series of rubella epidemics, and to offer services to World War II veterans who had suffered hearing loss as a result of their service.

It now offers subsidised services to children, adults up to the age of 26, veterans, Indigenous adults over 50 and pensioners.

Earlier this month, the Federal Finance Minister Mathias Cormann announced a scoping study is being conducted to consider the "future ownership options" for Australian Hearing.

Kate Kennedy is urging the Federal Government not to privatise it.

KATE KENNEDY: They see Australian Hearing as a business to be sold, whereas we as families really see it as a valuable service. The sale of Australian Hearing will put at risk the entire sort of infrastructure, I suppose, of the services that support kids with hearing loss.

Most babies - all babies in Australia are screened in hospital for hearing loss and so you find out very early and then there's a really clear pathway to Australian Hearing, to then get diagnosis and devices fitted, so hearing aids fitted.

Without that clear pathway and security of knowing that that pathway is there, the whole system is really undermined.

SAMANTHA DONOVAN: And Kate Kennedy says Australian Hearing provides a crucial service for Australians living outside the big cities.

KATE KENNEDY: Really, in a rural environment, Australian Hearing is usually close to where those families live. They are often the only services that understand the needs of your deaf child. And there may be only a very few number of children in your community who are using that service, but it's still there.

SAMANTHA DONOVAN: A spokeswoman for the Finance Minister, Senator Cormann, told PM the Australian Hearing scoping study will identify the most effective and efficient way of delivering services, and the availability and quality of services will be key considerations.

She says that regardless of whether the Government or the private sector owns Australian Hearing, it is expected that the same high level of service will continue to be provided.